Mikaela Shiffrin wins 4th straight slalom of the Olympic season as rivals falter in night race

COURCHEVEL, France (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin isn’t just winning every slalom of the Olympic season. She’s dominating each race and winning by large margins, too.

The American skiing standout claimed a record-extending 105th World Cup victory after several of her top challengers went out during the opening run of a night race Tuesday.

Shiffrin added to her first-run lead and finished 1.55 seconds ahead of Swiss skier Camille Rast and 1.71 ahead of German racer Emma Aicher.

Shiffrin has now won the opening four slaloms of the season — and five straight including the final race of last season.

All of her margins of victory this season have topped a full second — and three of them more than 1.5 seconds: 1.66 in Levi Finland; 1.23 in Gurgl, Austria; and 1.57 in Copper Mountain, Colorado before her latest performance in the French Alps.

Rivals scrambling to catch Shiffrin ran into difficulty.

Lena Duerr, the German who stood third after the first run, went off course early in her second trip down.

Lara Colturi, the Italian-born skier who races for Albania, straddled a gate toward the end of her opening run — ending a streak of three consecutive slalom podiums.

Wendy Holdener managed a seventh-place finish despite a mishap at the end of her first run.

Holdener hit a hole in the finish area, got flipped up into the air and landed on her back. After grimacing in pain for a few moments, she got up and walked away. It wasn’t immediately clear if she was injured but she competed in the second run.

Defending World Cup slalom champion Zrinka Ljutic and Olympic silver medalist Katharina Liensberger, the next two starters, went out midway down.

It’s the third straight slalom that Ljutic has failed to finish.

Katharina Truppe of Austria finished fourth and American skier Paula Moltzan moved up from ninth to fifth with the fastest second run.

Shiffrin earned her 68th World Cup slalom win. She also won gold in slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics — then took gold in giant slalom four years later at the Pyeongchang Games.

But Shiffrin didn’t medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.

Women’s Alpine skiing at the Feb. 6-22 Olympics will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy — where Shiffrin won four medals in her four events at the 2021 world championships and where Lindsey Vonn holds the record of 12 World Cup victories.

Vonn, who won a downhill last week at age 41, no longer competes in slalom.

Vonn will be back in action this weekend for a downhill and a super-G in nearby Val d’Isere.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics